Dungannon Swifts manager Rodney McAree feels his current squad is stronger than what he has had in the past and hopes their 4-1 Mid-Ulster Cup win over St Marys can help provide “a wee bit of a lift” after a tough start to the new campaign.

The Swifts enjoyed historic success last term, finishing fourth in the Premiership alongside lifting a maiden Irish Cup, but they’ve lost their first five league matches of the 2025/26 season – a run which sees them sitting bottom at this very early stage.

McAree rung the changes at Stangmore Park on Tuesday evening with summer signing Junior Ogedi-Uzokwe netting a brace on debut while Leo Alves and James Knowles were also on the scoresheet.

"I think it shows the quality and the depth we have when you can make those 10 changes,” McAree told the club’s media channel. “I think this is a stronger squad than we have had in the past overall, from the first man to the last.

placeholder image — Dungannon Swifts manager Rodney McAree. (Photo by Arthur Allison/Pacemaker Press)

"That’s exciting, but it brings its own challenges as well because when we’ve had the start that we have, you feel like after every result you’ve so much quality that hasn’t played that you need to make changes.

"We don’t want to be going from week to week making four or five changes, we want to try and get a settled team and system we know is working for us and only needs slight adjustments from time to time.

"The good thing for me is you know that everybody in the squad is of a high standard and can contribute in their own way. It’s nice to know you can make the changes, but you don’t want to be making too many at the same time all the time.”

Dungannon will make a weekend trip to Glenavon, who are the only other Premiership team yet to pick up a league point as the pair both look to get their season up and running.

McAree hopes a winning feeling can help provide a timely boost for the Swifts and hailed Alves after he scored his first goal of the campaign.

“It maybe gives us a wee bit of a lift,” he added. “There’s more smiling faces after this match and we have to embrace that.

"We scored a wondergoal through Leo Alves – we keep saying to Leo he needs to shoot more and when he does something like that you wonder why he doesn’t shoot more.

"He’s a credit to himself in how he keeps himself fit and conducts himself. He’s a quality player and he gives us a lot knowing we can score a goal like that.

"It’s been a very, very tough start to the season. There has been a lot of thinking, a lot of analysing and watching games, but it’s nice to win a game of football.

"I thought St Mary’s were a credit to their club, they came and set themselves up and were hard to break down. I thought we did reasonably well over the duration of the game and played some good stuff.

"We moved it quickly, created plenty of opportunities and we could have scored more on another day. It’s unfortunate we didn’t but it was nice to score the four and get a win.”